"There is a commonly held view that eating disorders are a lifestyle choice. Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors. Obsessions with food, body weight, and shape may also signal an eating disorder."
An eating disorder (ED) is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's physical or mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food, as well as body image issues. Types of eating disorders include binge eating disorder, where the person suffering keeps eating large amounts in a short period of time typically while not be
"Individuals with eating disorders and AUDs exhibit phenotypic profiles characterized by both anxious, perfectionistic traits and impulsive, dramatic dispositions. These traits mirror the pattern of control and dyscontrol seen in individuals with this comorbid profile and suggest that anxiety modulation may be related to alcohol use in this group."
"Eating disorders and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) commonly co-occur, although the patterns of comorbidity differ by eating disorder subtype. Our aim was to explore the nature of the co-morbid relation between AUDs and eating disorders in a large and phenotypically well-characterized group of individuals."
"ADHD girls were 3.6 times more likely to meet criteria for an eating disorder throughout the follow-up period compared to control females. Girls with eating disorders had significantly higher rates of major depression, anxiety disorders, and disruptive behavior disorder compared to ADHD girls without eating disorders. Girls with ADHD and eating disorders had a significantly earlier mean age at menarche than other ADHD girls. No other differences in correlates of ADHD were detected between ADHD girls with and without eating disorders."
"Alcohol use disorders were significantly more prevalent in women with ANBN and bulimia nervosa than in women with anorexia nervosa (p =.0001). The majority of individuals reported primary onset of the eating disorder, with only one third reporting the onset of the AUD first. After eating disorder subtype was controlled for, AUDs were associated with the presence of major depressive disorder, a range of anxiety disorders, and cluster B personality disorder symptoms. In addition, individuals with AUDs presented with personality profiles marked by impulsivity and perfectionism."
"Personality traits have been implicated in the onset, symptomatic expression, and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs). The present article reviews literature examining the link between personality and EDs published within the past decade, and presents a meta-analysis evaluating the prevalence of personality disorders (PDs) in anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED) as assessed by self-report instruments versus diagnostic interviews. AN and BN are both consistently characterized by perfectionism, obsessive-compulsiveness, neuroticism, negative emotionality, harm avoidance, low self-directedness, low cooperativeness, and traits associated with avoidant PD. Consistent differences that emerge between ED groups are high constraint and persistence and low novelty seeking in AN and high impulsivity, sensation seeking, novelty seeking, and traits associated with borderline PD in BN. The meta-analysis, which found PD rates of 0 to 58% among individuals with AN and BN, documented that self-report instruments greatly overestimate the prevalence of every PD."
"Results add compelling support for the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary, school-based obesity prevention intervention to prevent disordered weight-control behaviors in early adolescent girls."